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Forum:A new forum in order
Hello, I'm Jinxxx or just Jinx, I have worked on many different wikis, one notable wiki would be Lostpedia, I was looking around and noticed a good forum was missing. I don't attempt to belittle the people that made the situation room, but I think that it would be good if you guys could get an actual forum. I have made about 3 different forums with 2 of them being midly succesful in the past years and I am wondering if you (users of 24 wiki) would be interested in possibly getting a more organized, busier, hub where users and fans could gather and discuss 24. Please consider my propostition, it could help bring more activity to the site and keep old users to keep coming back for more. You can contact me in this thread, or on my talk page, you probably won't be able to contact me via email though, so if you are interested and would like to learn more, drop me a line, thanks! (Also, I love the site, don't edit, just observe and look at the different articles, I'm a big 24 fan myself.)--Jinxxx 02:42, 28 November 2008 (UTC) : Hey thanks for the feedback :) I'm glad you enjoy browsing the wiki, as I've always known there is a rather large body of frequent visitors who read but don't edit. We're always happy when one breaks their silence to bring up ideas. : Regarding the forum, I see the Lost forum and it's a completely different principle than our current one. As a few initial questions: # The forum here is for discussing the creation and maintenance of the wiki and this project, not 24 in general. If a new forum in the LostForum style will draw people in to discuss the show in general, I can guarantee there will be no support for its implementation here. What are some methods you can think of to ensure that people will immediately understand it isn't a watering hole with free-for-all topics? # Can this current forum be preserved for archival purposes, complete with all the history? # Will edits in a new forum like Lost's show up in the contributors' Forum Namespace edits? : Thanks for offering your help! I trust you understand that I'm simply trying to vet this idea. Hopefully more folks will come by with feedback too. 08:37, 28 November 2008 (UTC) Starting off with your first point, the idea of broadening the forum to include discussion about the show would be just an option that is possible. We could keep it to just suggestions and a place where contributors could gather to help better the wiki. We could make sure that it is clear that 24 discussion is lightly prohibited, when I say lightly I mean if someone says something like last night's episode was good, we aren't going to jump all over them and banish them forever. >.> Discussion would be limited to the wiki, but we could have a place where users could discuss 24, but the main focus of the forum would be for the 24 wiki not 24. Moving on to your second point, in theory yes, it could, we would have to either archive it here on the wiki and have the situation room link redirect to the forum with a page that archived all the discussions or we could archive it on the forums, archiving it on the wiki would be much easier I think though. I'm not really sure would you mean in your third point, but I'll answer it in several ways, if you mean the recent changes list, then no, I don't think I would be able to do that since the technical limitations of this wiki and the forum would prevent me from doing that. If you mean by edit count, again no, the two would have to be seperate. And finally if you mean by the my contributions link than no again because of the reasons above. However, on the forum there is a way where we can have posts made on the forum be counted. If you mean it differently than I have answered than please clarify. One great thing about the forum is it can bring together editors in ways that this wiki couldn't alone. Here it is mainly buisness where the only interaction between editors is on the talk pages. This forum could bring more of a community feel to the wiki. Also, with the inevitable craze that will happen when the priemere arrives it could be a great place for new editors and old to meet and help each other out in terms of formatting and what not. Another thing the forums would be completely free unless you would like me to get an domain name in which case it would begin to cost money as you probably would guess. I continue to be open to any and all questions and if you would like me to get a "beta" of sorts going I can do that, you guys can test it out for several weeks and see if you like it or not. Thanks for taking the time to respond!--Jinxxx 02:12, 29 November 2008 (UTC) : I thought of this option a few years back, but ultimately decided not to bother. Then someone else went ahead and did it anyway and it was a dismal failure (The spam-ridden remains can be found here). I know I personally found it a distraction to have to go somewhere else to discuss the site, so I created the current forum that we now use (Wiki 24 was created before Wikia automatically implemented forums for new wikis). Do you have any specific beefs with the current forum that can't be solved without the creation of another outside site? --Proudhug 15:51, 3 December 2008 (UTC) :: I'm pretty sure he's referring to a more complex, internal forum. Check out the LostPedia forum, I think that's what he means. Am I correct, Jinxxx? :: Also, another question for you Jinxxx, are there different user rights associated with this new forum idea? Meaning, will admins be able to delete spam threads and content just like on the regular wiki namespaces? 16:04, 3 December 2008 (UTC) : Oh, I see. I've seen this type of forum once or twice elsewhere. The problem is that Wiki 24 is hosted by Wikia, so it's their decision, not ours. To the best of my knowledge, they currently don't support this type of forum embedment. --Proudhug 17:50, 3 December 2008 (UTC) ::I actually saw that forum, I think one thing that was a big problem with it is because it was never fully backed by the users like you said. And there is a way to put the forum in as a link for the Situation Room so, it would be more like just clicking the situation room link and your there. As I stated earlier, no, this forum does an okay job of getting any problems resolved or ideas heard, I'm saying that a forum would bring more of a sense to community. All wiki's have is a user page and talk page which is mainly business related. One thing about wikis is that they are a collaborative effort, but a lot of the users here don't know each other well, or can't because of the limitations of the wiki. Editors could gather and talk and discuss certain projects that they together could work on, like all the people making sure there up to a certain standard. As Blue Rook said, it is more internal because you can simply slip a link on the side bar on the main page. Yes, there are user levels with administrators and moderators that can easily police situations. I doubt it would be up to wikia because really it is helping the wiki and wikia to gain more contributors and to do better work. As long as it does not link to bad sites or scams or anything it would be completely within the rules. Also, no offense to who created the forum that you mentioned before that is full of spam, but it would be much more polished and...better, look at Lostpedia's forum for a rough example.--Jinxxx 01:08, 5 December 2008 (UTC) : The previous forum was linked to directly from Wiki 24. It was largely because it was an external site that it never caught on. Any forum of the type at Lostpedia would have to be an external site, since Wikia doesn't currently support the implementation of this type of forum. It's not a "rules" thing, it's a configuration thing. It's simply not an option they offer us. : I'm assuming that you're proposing a place where our editors and readers can talk about 24 in a non-Wiki-related basis? There are dozens of places online where people can discuss 24 or other TV shows, and they're all more established than ours would be, so it would be extremely difficult to foster our own, even with the existing community here. I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally already belong to an exterior 24 forum and have no interest in relocating or splitting my attention. Currently there are no rules against OT discussions on User Talk pages, so I hope no one feels their right to get to know other editors is being stifled. : I'm not saying I will veto this idea if several people want it, I'm just saying I'm completely uninterested, I'm not optimistic about it working, and I don't believe there's any need for it. --Proudhug 01:40, 5 December 2008 (UTC) ::I must apologize for above, the Lostpedia forum is not a good example at all since it includes 24 discussion. The forum would be almost completely on the topic of the wiki, where editors and readers would gather, give suggestions in a more relaxed, easier setup that encouraged editors getting together and saying for example, "Looks like season 5 is lacking good articles, why don't Bob and I work on the first half you two work on the second half and we will talk in this thread about how it is going." And while yes, off topic discussion is fine on user talk pages, the very nature of the wiki is rather stand offish software when it comes to discussing things. It's just the nature of the wiki, I know this as well, and that was one reason they started the Lostpedia forum, while it has evolved per se to include general Lost, it still works at allowing users to come together to talk about the wiki in ways that the wiki alone wouldn't.--Jinxxx 05:08, 5 December 2008 (UTC) : I fully understand that now, but, aside from the nature of the discussions that will take place, do you have any response to Proudhug's technical considerations Jinxxx? There's no point in worrying about the usage of the forum if we cannot configure it in the first place. : Also, Jinxxx, I apologize if it seems we're giving you the run-around. Even if we can technically implement it, which I'm not certain about yet, I do generally agree with Proudhug that the current forum isn't "broken" so there's no need for fixing. 15:00, 5 December 2008 (UTC) ::Well, as I said before we would not be able to implement it where, in the latest activity bar or recent changes list you will not see your posts. Users could have a counter in there profiles possibly if we worked with some code and it would track their posts. So to answer your question frankly, no it would not be able to work internally with this wiki because of the configuration. ::By all means, this forum is not broken, but if you think about it if you have a car that can go 40 MPH and are perfectly happy with it, but you could upgrade it for free and go 60 MPH and see if you like it. Like I said before, we could get a beta going see if you and the users like it and then either upgrade to the forum or stay with this one.--Jinxxx 23:49, 5 December 2008 (UTC)